You could call it a fairytale of New York, but think the Pogues rather than Hans Christian Andersen. Cunningham’s seventh novel could also be described as the story of the intertwined lives of a handful of Brooklyn hipsters, but written for those who hate the way the word ‘’hipster’’ has devolved into one of the English language’s most meaningless epithets.

“Something’s gonna happen Sydney, you’ve got that look in your eye” Alex Turner tells the packed arena. If anyone should know a menacing gleam when he sees it, it’s Turner, whose Monkeys have morphed into world leaders in a delicious brand of unease. The exact kind of ominous pent-up energy that runs through their opening song ‘Do I Wanna Know?’.